


Walking on Nails

by veivei



Category: Durarara!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cursed Blade, Dark, Gen, Sad Mikado, Shogun!Kida, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-26
Updated: 2010-08-26
Packaged: 2018-11-06 01:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11025315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veivei/pseuds/veivei
Summary: AU in which things played out differently during the 1st season of Durarara. Saika-possessed Izaya goes on a mission. Dark. Complete.





	Walking on Nails

**Author's Note:**

> An old fic from the DRRR Kink Meme. Backdated.
> 
> If you believe Saika wouldn't possess Izaya that's not actually stated that clearly in the novels (though some fics, even some of my other fics, assume that conclusion). It just says she doesn't like him.

"Be a good girl and sit still for me for a while." Izaya said before tying Namie up to the chair.   
  
She tried to move her arms but the ropes didn't let her budge.   
  
"What is the meaning of this?" She asked in a carefully neutral voice.   
  
"I'm going out for a bit. And I can't just let you be now that the Dullahan’s here and you have all the access codes to this place, can I? Reconfiguring the security system or moving her out of here are both quite a bit more bothersome than keeping you here for a while so... I should be back to untie you eventually."   
  
"Eventually?" Namie asked dubiously, looking around the room. She was quite a distance away from any other furniture in the office. If she were to be forced to free herself on her own, there was nothing there to help her within reach.   
  
Her eyes landed on the Dullahan, asleep in Izaya's swivel chair behind his desk, her head tucked protectively under her arm with its eyes closed, the wisps of black shadow floating around her. She'd been incredibly uncooperative since she'd regained her head though and the only semi-conversations Izaya had managed to have with her had been in Gaelic.   
  
“I don’t think she will help you. Though if you start dying of thirst right in front of her eyes maybe this will actually elicit some reaction.” Izaya mused.   
  
"Where are you going anyway?" Namie asked.   
  
"Saitama."   
  
Izaya looked the ropes over one more time before heading to the closet to retrieve a long black coat.   
  
"It is not your own idea." Namie concluded, watching him put on black leather gloves to hide the bandages that had been wrapped around his left hand for the past few months.   
  
The redness of his eyes seemed more vibrant than usual when he glanced at her over his shoulder before smiling and shrugging it off.   
  
"Of course it is mine." He assured her. "It's Mikado-kun's birthday after all. I'm going to the party."   
  
"I doubt you were invited." Namie pointed out.   
  
"Has that ever stopped me before?" Izaya said on his way out.   
  
Namie's heart sank when the locks clicked shut behind him. There was a distinct possibility he wasn't going to come back at all. Nobody but him knew she was stranded here. She couldn't move at all which was going to become challenging what with no way to use the bathroom for a start. And a creepy fairy she had her reasons to hate was keeping her company to make it all worse.   
  
\---   
  
Driving slowly through the streets of Shinjuku, Izaya couldn't help but notice the gang activity that had spread even here lately. He'd always had a keen eye for such things and the spiritual bond that was tying him to most of them now was only helping him discern the figures in black moving around in small groups.   
  
The constant whispers in his mind were something he might have done without. He wanted them to stop. That was why he was following them. If he could just serve his purpose, he might have possibly been left alone after that.   
  
His eyes flickered involuntarily to his gloved hand that wasn't healing at all under the bandages.   
  
He still had his own agenda, though. He was only going to Saitama now because his goals were coinciding with what the whispers wanted from him.   
  
At least that was what he believed.   
  
It felt liberating when he finally got out of Tokyo and headed onto the highways, not only because he could drive faster but also because the bond seemed to have been weakening with the rising distance.   
  
Or maybe with getting closer to where it wanted him to go.   
  
He passed by a group of bosozoku hanging out at an overpass but other than that, this place seemed to be more at peace than Tokyo. When he drove through the city of Saitama and headed further into the west of the prefecture only to finally get to a small town surrounded by fields and forests, he figured Mikado's home town was indeed just the right place for the boy to hide once he had enough of the excitement.   
  
It was not that easy to hide from Izaya though. And, actually, locating Mikado had been as uncomplicated as looking up the location of the IP number he had been using to get into the old chat room.   
  
_ [Kanra]: Saitama, huh? Does it mean Tanaka Tarou-kun went back home? （￣□￣；）   
[Tanaka Tarou]: There was nothing left for me in Tokyo.   
[Kanra]: Ah, so pessimistic (Ｔ▽Ｔ). Kanra-chan doesn't think it's right Tanaka Tarou-kun has abandoned Dollars like that and took everything down (Ｔ▽Ｔ)   
[Tanaka Tarou]: I'm sorry if I disappointed you. _   
  
'More than anything, you've disappointed yourself.' Izaya thought.   
  
Mikado had always craved excitement so badly but in the end he’d gotten so much of it he couldn’t take it. Broken like that, he was probably a sight to behold. Izaya might have gone to take a look even out of his own accord.   
  
If only the whispers stopped bothering him...   
  
_ Father... Love... Father... Love... Love... Love... Love... Love... Love... _   
  
He parked the car in front of an average looking house at the outskirts of town and got out.   
  
_ Love... Love... Love... Love... Love... Love... _   
  
Something was wrong, though.   
  
As soon as his eyes landed on Shizuo, who was standing next to the front door with his arms crossed over his chest, he realized what it was exactly.   
  
\---   
  
Shizuo's eyes locked onto the black sports car the moment it parked in front of the house, an ominous feeling overwhelming him at the realization a car this flashy wasn't a usual sight in such a small town. When the driver door opened to reveal the blood red interior and the flea got out of the car he immediately started moving, throwing the cigarette he'd been smoking to the ground.   
  
Izaya had kept carefully out of Ikebukuro these past few months, thus not giving Shizuo any chances to beat him up. It only served to make him angrier now, especially seeing him turn up in Saitama to bother a kid that had been hurt badly enough already.   
  
"Iiiizaaaayaaaaa-kun..." Shizuo sing-songed, unable to hide his excitement. "I bet you didn't expect me here." He said with a satisfied smirk, his hand taking hold of the trashcan by the gate.   
  
"Indeed, I didn’t. What are you doing here, Shizu-chan?" Izaya asked, schooling his features carefully into the usual expression he would have displayed in such a situation even though Saika's influence within him was stirring and the whispers got worse than ever before. Unconsciously, he hugged his injured hand to his chest, the cut tingling with renowned pain.   
  
"Looking out for shady bastards like you. And it seems Shinra was right you were going to show up sooner or later."   
  
The maniacal grin on Shizuo's face promised pain and untimely demise.   
  
_ Love love love love love cut cut love love cut cut cut... _   
  
"Let's act like grown-ups for once, shall we, Shizu-chan? Or is ruining this kid's frontyard or possibly the entire street what you're aiming for?"   
  
Izaya took a step back. With Shizuo coming closer the need to just take his knife out and do his best to land a cut was getting worse, along with the whispered declarations of love in his head, even while every fiber of his own being was shaking with rage at Shizuo serving as an obstacle to his plans as per usual, doing the least expected things at the worst possible moments.   
  
"Get back into that pretty car of yours and get the hell out of here and I'll think about that." Shizuo offered generously.   
  
"Unfortunately, I came here for a reason." Izaya said.   
  
Shizuo's move to hurl the trashcan at him was stalled by the realization there was something wrong with the flea's eyes. Sure they were red all the time but not like that.   
  
_ "Look out for the Slashers, Shizuo-kun. Especially those wearing the gang gear Yellow Scarves wear these days. You know: the black clothes and masks." Shinra told him. "Mikado-kun said they might show up, possibly in big numbers. Essentially, that's why I'm asking you to do that. We just want to have a normal party for him, not another war here. Okay, so maybe you aren't the best person to use if we want to avoid violence but..." _   
  
"I have a gift for Mikado-kun."   
  
"I don't think he needs it." Shizuo sounded wary all of a sudden.   
  
"You do realize I’m the one person who is able to land a cut on you, Shizu-chan." Izaya pointed out, taking his switchblade out and opening it in one fluid motion. "And since you seem to have figured out what has happened to me, I suggest you'd let me pass."   
  
_ Love love love love love cut cut love love cut cut cut...   
_   
It took every ounce of Izaya's self-control not to act on his threat right away and just draw blood already.   
  
He resisted, biting his lower lip so hard it bled and reveling in the taste to divert his attention. The last thing he needed was Shizuo joining him on this mission once he would have become Saika's child too.   
  
He wasn't going to hold on for long though if the stupid brute didn't disappear from view as soon as possible.   
  
"Think about what you are, Shizu-chan. Do you want him to have that kind of power at his disposal, too? Even I, even in my current condition, don't want that. But I won't be able to stop myself for long." Izaya uttered between labored breaths. "It loves you so much. Why has it taken such a liking to a monster like you anyway?" He laughed, his face twisting into a disturbing expression halfway between hate and longing. "Shizu-chan, please just... go away."   
  
\---   
  
Aoba couldn't stop his mouth from briefly hanging open in astonishment when he opened the door of Mikado's house to the sight of Izaya hiding his switchblade and Shizuo walking away down the street with his hands in his pockets. "Orihara Izaya-san." He bowed in greeting when Izaya approached. "It's nice seeing you again." He said, forcing an enthusiastic smile onto his face despite the deeply-rooted hate twisting his insides in an almost painful way.   
  
Aoba was aware at the intellectual level it was no use blaming anyone for his own losses. Because he should have outsmarted everyone during the final battle. But he couldn't stop himself from having feelings, even though he could hide the evidence well enough.   
  
The black gloves Izaya was wearing caught his attention immediately before he straightened up from his bow. Did he want to murder someone without leaving fingerprints, he wondered briefly. There was nothing unusual about Izaya's eyes anymore though and he smiled an equally polite smile at Aoba.   
  
"Kuronuma-kun." Izaya nodded in acknowledgment.   
  
He was mildly surprised at Aoba still being around even when Mikado no longer had anything interesting to offer. Dollars were as good as gone and whatever abilities Mikado might have had, he'd refused to use them anymore and left Tokyo.   
  
"Aoba-kun, who..." Shinra stepped out into the hall. "Where's Shizuo?" He asked immediately after spotting Izaya.   
  
"So you're behind Shizu-chan keeping guard here, Shinra, I should have guessed." Izaya sighed. "I thought that now that Celty was gone, you would stop running the charity for troubled kids."   
  
"What do you want?" There was clear apprehension in Shinra's voice. He'd assumed Izaya was up to no good.   
  
Izaya moved him out of the way and headed inside the house, his black coat billowing behind him.   
  
He continued to the backyard unperturbed. The weather was still quite chilly but overall the garden party had been working out all right up to this point. Izaya wasn't expecting to see his sisters there but he didn't dwell on that. There was also Namie's little brother and the girl with the Celty's head's face who unlike everyone else didn't look the least bit surprised about him showing up, though that might have been just because her facial expressions didn't quite work after the plastic surgery. Yumasaki, Karisawa and the van driver were there too but thankfully no Dotachin. All in all, nobody who could stop him.   
  
"Izaya-san?" Mikado asked hesitantly, getting up from his seat.   
  
The whispers were deeply unsettled when Izaya laid his eyes on him.   
  
_ Father... Love... Father... Love... Love... Love... Love... Love... Love... _   
  
But the strange longing that wasn't Izaya's own and wasn't even Saika's itself was easy enough to shake off.   
  
\---   
  
"Iza-nii, have you come to the party?" Mairu spoke up. "Or have you come to ruin the party?"   
  
"No good" Kururi nodded by her side.   
  
Izaya ignored them, concentrating on Mikado and his mildly bewildered expression when he was suddenly confronted with his recent past again, even while he was still clutching the spoon with a mouthful of cake and looking as if he was enjoying himself with a group of friends.   
  
Of course, these weren't his friends for real. More like people who were pitying him. And he must have been aware of that.   
  
"Izaya-san, why did you come here?" Mikado asked politely, standing up from behind the table.   
  
"To take you back to Tokyo."   
  
"No way." Shinra protested from behind them. "Mikado-kun shouldn't show up in Ikebukuro again before things settle down there."   
  
"I told you already to mind your own business, Shinra." Izaya said without turning around to face him. "Are you trying to repent for being unable to protect Celty or something? Either way, it's useless."   
  
"Can you bring me to Kida-kun, Izaya-san?" Mikado asked.   
  
"Mikado-kun, you know well enough he can't be trusted even as himself, and I'm afraid, judging by Shizuo's reaction, that he's actually..." Shinra interrupted.   
  
"...under Saika's influence, yes." Izaya confirmed. "If you will get in my way, I will just cut you into submission."   
  
Something indiscernible passed through Mikado's eyes.   
  
"I know where Masaomi is at all times, Mikado-kun."   
  
"I'll go then." Mikado declared.   
  
The whispers were satisfied. Izaya couldn't stop himself from breathing a sigh of relief when they started to quiet down, the red fog clouding his vision lifting gradually.   
  
"Have you lost your mind, Mikado-senpai?" Aoba spoke up. "Kida will kill you. Just like he killed Anri-senpai."   
  
"No good" Kururi whispered to Mairu.   
  
It had been an unspoken rule not to voice things that way around Mikado during the past few months.   
  
"Shall we?" Izaya stretched his gloved hand out to Mikado.   
  
The whispers went completely quiet when Mikado's fingers brushed his.   
  
\---   
  
Ignoring the murmurs of warnings and protest, Mikado followed Izaya out of the garden and into the front yard and got into the car with him, his eyes taking in the blood red interior with instinctive curiosity. They widened when the roof started sliding back.   
  
"I will be back. I promise." He spoke loudly once it could no longer block his voice, so that his birthday guests gathering in front of the house could hear him. "Please tell my parents not to worry if it takes some time." He added.   
  
"You've been thinking of going back." Izaya observed when the car started moving, leaving the exasperated faces behind.   
  
Mikado nodded hesitantly. Izaya didn't seem different than before. Then again, Mikado hadn't had nearly enough to do with him before to notice minor changes. And his eyes were red anyway.   
  
_ [Kanra]: Don't you miss Tokyo at all, Tanaka Tarou-kun? (ーー;) I thought you would get used to how lively it was and wouldn't be able to leave (*^▽^*)   
[Tanaka Tarou]: It's pretty bad there right now though, isn't it? The gangs are dangerous.   
[Kanra]: There's only one gang now (*￣m￣) And they're like everywhere. But they have some agenda that doesn't involve slaughtering everyone yet so...   
[Tanaka Tarou]: I should probably try to make things better, shouldn't I?   
[Kanra]: Like Saika did?   
  
*Tanaka Tarou left the chat _

  
"My birthday gift for you is in the glove compartment, Mikado-kun." Izaya said. "Which is it anyway? Seventeenth?"   
  
"Yes."   
  
"Won't you take a look?"   
  
Mikado wanted to ask Izaya when it had happened. Had it been Anri or Kida who had cut him? How much of his actions hadn't been his own and at which point they had stopped to be?   
  
All these questions escaped his mind, leaving it strangely blank, the moment he opened the glove compartment and retrieved the heavy object hidden inside, wrapped up in white cloth, feeling cold and metallic under it.   
  
"What is the meaning of this, Izaya-san?" He asked, shoving the gun back into the compartment and shutting it with trembling hands.   
  
What if the traffic police stopped them for whatever reason and found it? Mikado could feel himself blushing from nervousness, his self-consciousness catching up to him.   
  
"Apparently, you're not the only one going insane with remorse." Izaya observed. "If you want to see Masaomi again, I guess this should be of use to you, right?"   
  
"Has Kida-kun made you do all these things, Izaya-san?"   
  
"You should assume as much at least, shouldn't you, Mikado-kun? Now that he has Saika and I've been cut with it, that's certainly possible, isn't it?"   
  
"But that would mean..."   
  
This could still be a trap on many many levels. But if it wasn't...   
  
Mikado felt sick.   
  
Suddenly, a wave of memories flooded him. The images of Anri's funeral, rendered even more sinister by the prominent presence of yakuza next to Raira students with sullen expressions. That was the last time he’d seen Kida too.   
  
He headed back to Saitama on the morning of the very next day.   
  
The car reached Tokyo in no time and Mikado's anxiety only grew worse. He checked his phone instinctively but there was nothing there. Now that he no longer had a gang under his control, he was on his own.   
  
The whispers resounded again in Izaya's mind, guiding him right where they wanted him to be.   
  
\---   
  
"Look." Izaya motioned towards the sidewalk with a move of his head.   
  
A group of people in black was moving there and the other passersby were crossing the street to avoid them.   
  
"All the problems Masaomi has ever had with controlling the members of his own gang, up to knowing their true agenda and intentions, are gone now." Izaya observed. "You can imagine it is a perfect way to establish a presence in the city and even make it visible on every corner. But somehow I doubt he’s happy with this achievement. After all, you gave up on the idea of Dollars and Blue Squares altogether and left, Mikado-kun. All because of Anri-chan… Humans are quite foolish. Say, Mikado-kun, how well do you think Masaomi's shouldering the blame?”   
  
"It was an accident." Mikado was quick to point out.   
  
“With such an affinity for hurting people who are close to him, does going on even have a point?"   
  
Mikado thought how the secrets that him, Anri and Kida had been steadily keeping from each other had been more to blame than Kida personally even though it had been his hands bringing the crowbar down on the Slasher's head.   
  
\---   
  
"This is where my role's ending, I guess." Izaya announced, stopping the car in front of an abandoned warehouse in Ikebukuro.   
  
It was already dark at this point and the desolate badly-lit surroundings were making Mikado uneasy.   
  
_ "I'm going away tomorrow." Mikado said softly, carefully not looking at Kida who was standing next to him but also not looking in the direction where Anri's body had been carried away. He settled on looking at Aoba's face since he happened to be by his other side. "Back to Saitama." _   
  
_ He saw Kida flinch with the corner of his eye.   
  
"I think I understand." Aoba nodded. "But I still hope you can come back one day, Mikado-senpai." _   
  
"Unless you want me to teach you how to shoot."   
  
"That won't be necessary, Izaya-san." Mikado shook his head.   
  
He wanted to get out of the car but a gloved hand grabbed his wrist and stopped him.   
  
"You're supposed to take it with you." Izaya said, motioning to the glove compartment with a move of his head.   
  
Mikado shivered realizing that Izaya's eyes weren't merely red anymore, their irises were glowing with red light from within and a strangely absent expression on his face was right out creepy.   
  
There was probably no helping it, he figured, since giving him the gun was apparently a part of Izaya's objective and he could do nothing but try to follow.   
  
"I won't." Still, Mikado persisted, his eyes turning cold and determined.   
  
"Then take this at least."   
  
Izaya's switchblade was pushed into his hand with the blade extended.   
  
"I just want to talk to him." Mikado said even as he accepted the knife, figuring it was the lesser evil.   
  
"Don't you think it is too late for that?" Izaya said, relaxing in his seat, apparently settling down to wait for him.   
  
The roof of the car was still down so he had a good view of his surroundings. Not that he needed to keep watch. There were plenty of other guards around with their black clothes blending in with the darkness even while their red irises didn't.   
  
Mikado headed towards the warehouse, seemingly unaware of their presence.   
  
Izaya pressed his fingers to his temples in an attempt to clear his mind of the persistent whispers, echoing all around him in the minds of the other Saika children.   
  
The part of him that was still somehow able to think independently was well aware he needed this situation to have a very specific outcome. With a trembling hand he retrieved the gun from the glove compartment and checked if it was loaded.   
  
Then he headed after Mikado, the guards overlooking his movements seeing as he was one of them.   
  
\---   
  
'Would he know?' Izaya wondered with paranoia increasing with every step of the way towards the warehouse. His very mind was betraying him and the feeling was atrocious.   
  
It felt as if Karma had had something to do with how Kida had gained that kind of control over him after all these years of the exact opposite taking place.   
  
He was too close to achieving his goal now though to back off and risk things going differently from planned.   
  
He sneaked into the warehouse through the door Mikado had left open, maybe to make his eventual retreat easier or maybe because luck was on Izaya's side after all.   
  
Not everything had gone as planned up to this point. The conflict, maybe because it had been stalled by a tragedy even he couldn't have predicted before it could go into full swing, didn’t prove enough to awaken the Valkyrie. Izaya settled for abducting Celty and reconnecting her with her head when an opportunity presented itself and renewed his efforts at stirring war only to have the tables turned on him in the most cruel way possible, not having taken into account that the cursed blade disappearing out of sight didn’t mean the Yakuza or Nebula had it like he'd suspected but that it was actually in Kida's possession ever since he'd murdered the previous holder.   
  
It made sense in a way, Izaya mused, considering a prerequisite for controlling it was being broken so badly there was not much actual humanity left to salvage. He realized when he looked into Kida's eyes after coming to have a chat with him and maybe push him to do something with all the power at his disposal after the other gangs had withered, that it had been indeed the case. The cut came unexpectedly. Really, it was the only way it could have even happened in the first place.   
  
It still hadn't healed throughout the past few months.   
  
Izaya did his best to become one with the shadows filling most of the room. A single bare lightbulb was the only source of light illuminating the beaten up couch in the back and the boy sitting on it. Mikado's figure cast a long shadow across the floor, its edges almost close enough to lick Izaya's shoes.   
  
His mind was full of whispers. This close to Saika, they had actually gained a certain level of strange coherence.   
  
Mikado's gasp echoed inside the large room once his steps went quiet. The last time he'd seen Kida the changes in him hadn't been that apparent.   
  
"I'm sorry, Mikado-kun." Kida spoke softly, his voice raw as if from screaming for hours.   
  
The whispers relied his plan to Izaya in a fragmented chorus of _die love regret_ in his head.   
  
The cursed blade was lying in Kida's lap.   
  
\---   
  
Kida realized Mikado was going to oppose his decision once he noticed he hadn't brought the gun. It was unsettling Izaya had failed like that but he had no time to dwell on that.   
  
In Kida’s mind, Mikado already hated him with enough passion to devise methods of slaughtering him of his own accord and Kida had been waiting patiently for his best friend to show up and free him from this mix of regret over his own ruined life and confusion over what Saika wanted from him and all the other humans around it. He'd made the Yellow Scarves wear black and become deadly and he had gotten dangerous in countless ways but still no one was coming to put an end to everything.   
  
There was too much at stake though, too much of Anri's effort as well, now that he understood things, to just suicide and let Saika latch onto the first random person, transferring that much control over to someone who couldn't be trusted. Someone who would have succumbed to the cursed blade or worse, someone like Izaya, who would have used it to his advantage with no concerns for the consequences.   
  
Kida was aware all of this probably didn’t make as much sense as it seemed to make at times in his mind.   
  
But his mind was being warped from the inside out and he couldn't help it. It was deteriorating at a rate that was just barely noticeable on a daily basis and it made him wonder for how long Anri had persevered exactly.   
  
If only for that reason, his time was limited and Saika needed a new owner.   
  
Despite outward appearances, Kida believed Mikado was stronger than him and not being directly responsible for the atrocity of Anri's death he wasn’t haunted by demons. Of course this was going to change once the deed was done but he was still Kida’s best bet for someone who could have been entrusted with a burden like that.   
  
Even though at the same time Kida didn't want him to suffer like that..   
  
But certain sacrifices had to be made. Anri had prevailed for who knew how long. And now it was their turn.   
  
His.   
  
Then Mikado’s.   
  
_ Die die die die die die die die   
_   
Izaya could barely catch his breath. As scared of death as he was, being that intimately involved in a cold-blooded analysis of one's own suicide and even going as far as looking up to the nothingness on the other side made his insides clench with fear. The end of all things, the end of the world, the end of the existence itself. How could anyone have been looking forward to that?   
  
Mikado's nails dug into his palms when his hands clenched into fists. When he set out to cleanse Dollars and make the world better for the sake of his friends, this wasn't the outcome he was dreaming about. With Anri dead and Kida apparently having lost his mind.   
  
When he headed for Tokyo a few hours ago, hoping to see Kida again, he imagined his golden eyes being as dull as they'd been at Anri's funeral. The actual hollowness behind their shining redness was something that he hadn’t expected at all.   
  
Then the blade descended upon him and he yelped in pain, his blue eyes filling with redness to rival Kida's own.   
  
Then all his thoughts disappeared and all that was left was a whisper of _die_.   
  
\---   
  
Izaya kneeled down to get a hold of the cursed katana with a sigh. That was it for not killing.   
  
Though he couldn't tell if it had been his idea and his own resilience all the way through. Now that his mind was clear of the whispers, looking back on his condition before, he could tell he hadn't quite been himself.   
  
Kida had such a knack for making unfortunate decisions. This time around, first to use Izaya as his messenger, which might have seemed to make sense considering his efficiency but hadn't been the wisest thing to do considering he couldn't have been trusted, apparently, even under Saika's influence. And then the very idea of making Mikado kill him and hoping for him to go on some way. Izaya had a feeling he'd actually done the boy a favor, killing him instantly after he’d murdered his best friend.   
  
Things happened so quickly. The shallow cut Kida landed across Mikado's stomach through his clothes caused the first flood of foreign objectives, admittedly, the most powerful one before there was time for one to adjust, to prompt Mikado to plunge the switchblade he had been carrying into Kida's heart. He hadn't probably had time to reflect upon what he had done before Izaya shot him in the back of his head.   
  
And that was the end. And a new beginning.   
  
Those red-eyed monsters hadn't been quite human anymore anyway, Izaya figured, reassured by his lack of remorse.   
  
The whispers were back as soon as he touched the abandoned cursed blade and his hand retreated instinctively. But it was either that and immortality or a normal short life and the horror of death which had never been displayed as prominently before his eyes as it had been a moment ago. With that realization he took a hold of the katana, feeling the bond lodge into place instantly. All these Saika children everywhere were suddenly at his disposal. The katana slid into his body effortlessly as if it was meant to be a part of it all along.   
  
He dislodged his switchblade from Kida's body, pocketed it disregarding the blood for now, and walked back to the car.   
  
The evidence the police might have found upon coming to this place sooner or later might have proved to be a problem even though he'd been wearing gloves and abandoned the gun by the bodies. To be on the safe side, his first order to Saika's children lingering around the building was to dispose of the bodies.   
  
By eating them.   
  
Having that kind of control over humans sure was fun.   
  
\---   
  
Just like he'd predicted, the cursed blade was probably the single thing in the world that could have made the Dullahan afraid. A memory of having its head cut off with it, however unconventional was its connection to its body in the first place, must have been quite unpleasant.   
  
In the end, Saika and an English-Irish Gaelic dictionary (since finding one in Japanese had proved futile) were enough to make the Dullahan way more cooperative.   
  
"Maybe I should just leave you tied down here like that, what do you think, Namie-san?" Izaya asked.   
  
Namie glared up at him.   
  
"You are the only person who knows I have Saika now after all. This might prove to be a problem."   
  
The sudden understanding made Namie's eyes go wide just before the blade descended upon her.   
  
Izaya wondered briefly how it felt now that he was the one behind things. What were the whispers saying to Saika's children about him?   
  
"I'm sorry, I only meant to cut the ropes." Izaya apologized with a sweet smile. "Take care of business here for me for as long as you can, will you, Namie-san? I don't need everyone knowing instantly that I'm gone."   
  
With that, he ordered the Dullahan to follow him, Celty's helmet on and her precious head concealed in a bag.   
  
It took some effort and the right connections to book an international flight for someone who refused to take her helmet off and carried a living human head at all times but when you could have the assistance of any given person just by making her shed a bit of blood things were decidedly easier to arrange.   
  
Izaya had heard previously that Saika didn't like him. Maybe that was the case indeed because her mental presence kept carefully away from his own thoughts. For now though it seemed willing, if reluctant, to cooperate.   
  
It was Russia for now, because he knew the language and the customs and it could get pretty deadly there at times. If not there then wherever else there was a chance to stir a war. One day he was going to succeed either way, if his theory had been correct in the first place.   
  
In a way, eternal life seemed more within reach now than ever before.   
  
"What's wrong?" He asked when the Dullahan stopped by the gates at the airport and looked back.   
  
Was she actually feeling wistful being forced to leave this country?   
  
"Don't even think about running away." He warned her. "I'll find you. Especially since you're going to go to Shinra, right?"   
  
The fairy followed him in the end, not giving away any signs of understanding whatsoever.   
  
END

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. I'm aware in canon Shizuo is not affected by Saika children's cuts but I liked the scene with Izaya.
> 
> 2\. I've been asked how it was possible that Izaya killed Mikado if he was being controlled by Saika. Note how he kills him right after Kida's death. At that moment neither Kida nor Mikado is Saika's wielder so that's how it's possible.


End file.
